The human brain is divided into two hemispheres and, as the theory goes, one side dominates the other: You’re either right-brained or left-brained. Right-brained people are more intuitive, holistic thinkers whose thought patterns are often nonlinear. These folks are typically more inclined to emotional, artistic endeavors.

Left-brained people, meanwhile, are analytical and objective, relying more on reason than feelings when making decisions. By extension, left-brainers are more inclined to pursuits in science and math.

And then there are those few lucky ones who are both. Meet Keith McVeen, owner and operator of Virtual Image Productions (VIP) in Orlando, who’s used that unique talent to carve himself a niche in the amusement industry by producing I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-real digital animated renderings of amusement rides.

“I’ve always been into math and science as well as art, which is kind of weird, because most people go one way or the other,” McVeen says. “I kind of like both.”

There was a time when this 24-year-old didn’t know if he could possibly turn his hobby into a full-time job. Now, marketing managers from across the United States don’t know what they’d do without him. But for the past year and a half, McVeen’s animations have been plastered all over marketing materials for some of the industry’s hottest new attractions, including Six Flags Great Adventure’s “Kingda Ka,” “Silver Bullet” at Knott’s Berry Farm, and “Italian Job: Stunt Track” at Paramount’s Kings Island, just to name a few.

“We can use [the animation video] in so many ways; it makes marketing the ride so easy,” says Chris Ozimek, director of marketing at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, who has worked with McVeen on several projects, including “Hydra: The Revenge” at Dorney Park in Pennsylvania, and Worlds of Fun’s new “Patriot.” “It helps build a buzz because the public knows exactly what to expect from this ride.”

‘A Complete 180’
McVeen doesn’t remember his first roller coaster ride, but he’s been an amusement park enthusiast his entire life—the coasters just captured his imagination while he was growing up outside Chicago. His father would bring home huge sheets of paper from work, and McVeen would draw his own rides and parks on them.

Nevertheless, McVeen’s dream growing up was always to design roller coasters, not just draw them. So, using his left-brain skills of math and science, he was accepted into Purdue (Indiana) University’s engineering program in September 1998, early in his senior year of high school. At the same time, however, an adviser introduced McVeen to computer graphics and suggested the student make it his senior art project.

“I did a complete 180 and went from wanting to drop my art class to loving computer graphics so much that I would go to school early just to get a head start,” McVeen recalls. “Once my teacher got me into [computer graphics], I switched my intended major before I was halfway done with my senior year in high school. If it wasn’t for my high school art teacher, I would have never pursued computer graphics and would probably be working at a company somewhere as a mechanical engineer. I honestly owe my art teacher a huge thanks. I don’t think he knows how influential he was in my career path.”

Instead of studying mechanical engineering, McVeen ended up in Purdue’s computer graphics program, which he says is traditionally used for video games, web design, and other multimedia applications. McVeen, of course, turned to roller coasters.

‘Parks Really Want This Stuff’
For his high school senior project, McVeen designed and fully animated a made-up coaster, themed to Y2K. “I was the only one in my class who actually finished the project,” he recalls. “I guess it was because I had so much motivation because I was so into theme parks and roller coasters.”

Once in college, he continued to create coaster animations in his free time—typically modeling his particular favorites—and posting them on the free web space given to every Purdue student. For an extra challenge, he eventually moved on to conceptualizing upcoming attractions, including “Talon” at Dorney Park in October 2000. Through a mutual contact, officials at Dorney found out about McVeen’s work and, out of the blue, asked to purchase it a month after it went online.

“I thought it was a joke at first,” McVeen says. “I sold the animation to them, and I thought, ‘Whoa! Parks actually want this stuff?’ But I still didn’t know you could make a living off it.”

As he started to investigate this little niche in the industry, McVeen realized there was a market for his type of work, but he was only going to be taken seriously if he was an official company, not just some fanboy with a unique hobby. So, with the help of his father, McVeen incorporated Virtual Image Productions (www.3dvip.com) on Jan. 8, 2001, as just a sophomore in college. His first paying gig came late that year from Six Flags New England; through a friend in the Six Flags organization, McVeen found out SFNE was looking for a digital promo for its upcoming “Batman—The Dark Knight” floorless Bolliger & Mabillard coaster. McVeen sent his resume and samples and VIP was hired in November 2001.

“Since that was a Six Flags park, Six Flags’ corporate headquarters noticed my work and started referring me to all their other parks,” he says. “I was still in college, and I was not even prepared for the workload. I’d get calls from parks saying, ‘We have an announcement in two weeks and we need something,’ and I’d be thinking, ‘Hey, I have finals in two weeks!’”

The burgeoning artist never thought his animations would actually constitute a full-time job; in college, he always figured this would be something he’d do on the side of his “real” job. But as his client roster expanded from two in 2001 to eight in 2002, McVeen started to believe he could make a go of it. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I grew up. I still say that today,” he chuckles.

Unfortunately for him, graduation in 2003 just happened to coincide with a down year in the industry. There was a dearth of major new attractions, and as a result almost no new contracts to be had. He moved back home to live with his parents and “putzed around” for a year trying to get Virtual Image Productions off the ground, but things weren’t looking hopeful after months of pounding the pavement. Just as he had finally given up and was pulling together demo reels and resumes to start sending established design firms, the floodgates opened. Turned out, 2004 was good for just about everybody in the industry.

“When I was ready to go start putting my resume out there, all of the sudden parks started calling again,” McVeen says. “My whole summer and fall were booked with projects.”

So booked, in fact, he was able to generate enough income to set up shop in November 2004 in the unofficial theme park capital of the world, Orlando, Florida.

“My downtime is winter,” he says. “Winter in Chicago versus winter in Florida …”

‘It Totally Identifies the Ride’
While PR managers rave about McVeen’s work, the animations speak for themselves. Because of the level of detail he incorporates into each project— including fully accurate landscapes and real shrieks of joy from the “riders”—sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between fiction and reality.

“One of the treats that sets apart his animation is how he truly puts that attraction inside your park,” says Kristin Siebeneicher, public relations manager at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey. “You really feel like you’re watching an actual [live] video, as opposed to something that is created.”

To create this wizardry, McVeen uses “3-D Studio Max,” an entertainment industry staple for digital rendering and modeling. Parks provide him with every possible bit of information on their respective projects; everything starts with the ride’s CAD files— electronic blueprints that McVeen can import into his design software. He usually also receives site plans, site photos, theming templates, and more.

Using basic computer animation techniques, McVeen has developed his own process for constructing a virtual roller coaster. It’s so intuitive, “I don’t really know how to describe it,” he says. But essentially he begins by tracing the coaster’s path of travel, models the track (by putting in all the twists and banks), and then adds the trains and foundation supports.

It’s here that McVeen’s left-brain skills chime in, though. In high school, his love of roller coasters drew him to physics, a subject in which he excelled. When he first started modeling coasters, it was a lot of trial-and-error to get the train speed to look right. He used to animate by hand, figuring out frame-by-frame where the train should be based on approximately how fast it would be moving versus how much distance it had covered. This presented problems, however, if the park wanted it to look faster or slower in the finished product, because he would have to redo the entire thing.

So a couple years ago, McVeen dredged up all that old physics knowledge to write a computer script that does all that work for him, calculating the train’s speed based on gravity, friction, etc. “Nowadays, I just push a button and it animates the whole coaster for me,” he says.

The main structure is only part of the job, though. The thing that distinguishes McVeen’s work, marketing experts say, is his ability to place new rides in the context of their respective parks. Using site photos and land surveys, McVeen essentially constructs an entire virtual park—at least as much as you can see from a given ride. Take, for instance, his animation for “ El Toro,” the new wooden coaster set to debut this spring at Six Flags Great Adventure. In this animation, other rides such as “Kingda Ka” can clearly be seen in the distance in exactly the spot riders will see them when the coaster is actually in place.

“It totally identifies the ride with the park, the more scenery that’s in there,” McVeen says. “That helps make the animation more realistic and exciting to watch. The animation footage is good enough to use in commercials and advertisements well before the ride is operational and ready to be filmed.”

In some instances, such as “ El Toro,” McVeen simply drops previous animations he’s already finished into the current project. He then constructs 3-D models for rides that are near the featured attraction (sometimes it’s like doing two or three jobs for the price of one, he says); those that are farther away require a simpler 2-D treatment. “A lot of computer graphics are just tricks of the eye,” he says. “I’m not modeling the entire park.”

The effect on the consumer, however, is tremendous.

“Without his animation, it’s very difficult for the general public to grasp exactly what it is that you’re building, the scope of what you’re building, and how it can impact the rest of your product,” says Siebeneicher. “The visual is extremely important. It’s like giving them a photo of what will be built in a few months. It’s that ability to virtually experience that attraction before it is actually created. It certainly helps to build a great deal of excitement.”

“I don’t know how he does it, with all the different angles the ride has,” says Worlds of Fun’s Ozimek. “His work is incredible. He really does an excellent job of putting the videos into the park setting so it looks like you’re really there. It’s amazing.”

‘It’s Totally a Dream Job’
In a sense, McVeen is living a coaster enthusiast’s dream. He’s the ultimate in-the-know guy— Worlds of Fun, for example, approached him nearly a year before announcing “Patriot.” However, it’s a dream the artist has to keep under wraps for a long, long time.

“I have to keep things confidential,” he says. “I have such a specialized job that, if I ever were to compromise it, I’d be out of a job.”

Once the cat is officially out of the bag, though, McVeen’s work is everywhere. It’s a given parks will incorporate his animations into their press releases, as well as posting them online for fans to enjoy. His repertoire has expanded beyond just coasters to all sorts of rides and attractions, even cutting promos for entire parks (Paramount’s Boomerang Bay). Recently, he has also been asked on projects such as “Kingda Ka” and “El Toro” to create the equivalent of a theatrical trailer for the ride, based on his animations. The parks provide him with a basic storyboard, and he takes it from there. His images are also used in advertising, posters, calendars, and more.

As he approaches his 25th birthday next month, McVeen still can’t believe it’s worked out so well.

“It’s totally a dream job,” he says. “I did it for fun before I ever did it for money. Some people say don’t make your hobby your job because you’ll end up hating it, and then you won’t have a hobby left. But for me, I love it, and I love being involved in the industry.

“I don’t see myself—at least for a while— doing anything different. Really, there’s no job that would give me as much creativity as this one. I can take my love for roller coasters and amusement parks and create movie trailers for them. In the end, it becomes the park’s vision mixed with my vision. I can’t imagine any other job that would be any more exciting.”